8.  The applicants were born in 1935, 1957, 1980, 1983, 1967 and 1958 respectively, and live in Ankara.
9.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
10.  The applicants are the heirs of Mustafa Çökmez, who owned a 321,76 m² plot of land in Ankara. In 1942 the Ministry of Defence took actual possession of this plot of land and established a military base. According to the applicants, it was not until the land consolidation proceedings that the administration took control of their property. The applicants continued to pay the land tax every year, until the decision of 23 December 1998 by which their title to the land in question was transferred to the State and they lost their title to the land in question.
11.  In 1981 and 1989 the domestic authorities conducted land consolidation proceedings and revised the local plans. When Mustafa Çökmez died in 1990, the applicants inherited this plot of land and it was registered in their name.
12.  On 18 April 1990, upon the request of the Ministry, it was noted in the title registry that the administration considered expropriating the land in question. On 24 April 1990 the applicants were informed of the annotation. On 21 August 1990 a group of experts valued the land. Later on the administration renounced its decision to expropriate.
13.  On 22 March 1991 the applicants brought an action for compensation against the Ministry of Defence before the Ankara Civil Court of General Jurisdiction. They submitted, inter alia, that the Ministry of Defence was in actual possession of the land illegally since they had not conducted expropriation proceedings or compensated them for the damage resulting from the interference. The Ministry of Defence denied the allegations and argued that they had been in actual possession of the land since 1942. They therefore argued that the applicants' action for compensation had to be rejected as being time-barred.
14.  The court ordered an expert report in order to determine the date of the actual taking possession of the land.
15.  According to the experts' report dated 3 June 1991, it was established that the applicants' land had been subjected to land consolidation proceedings in 1981 and the Ministry of Defence had started using the land for military purposes on 21 January 1981. It was concluded that one square meter of the applicant's land was worth 4,500,000 Turkish liras (TRL).
16.  On 9 July 1991 the first-instance court, relying on the experts' report, decided that the Ministry of Defence was in actual possession of the land since 21 January 1981 and therefore the applicants were entitled to receive compensation as regards the unlawful possession of their land. It awarded the sum of TRL 1,447,920,000 of compensation to be paid to the applicants.
17.  The Ministry of Defence appealed. On 21 April 1992 the Court of Cassation quashed the first-instance court's judgment on the ground that the facts of the case had not been properly established. The case file was sent back to the court of first instance for further examination.
18.  On an unspecified date, the first-instance court heard witnesses on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and examined the new experts' reports submitted by them which indicated the date of actual taking possession of the land as 1942.
19.  On 25 April 1996, relying on the new experts' reports and the evidence submitted by the Ministry of Defence, the Ankara Civil Court of General Jurisdiction held that the Ministry of Defence had been in actual possession of the land since 1942. It accordingly rejected the case for being introduced out of the statutory time-limit pursuant to Article 38 of the Law no. 2942. The applicants' appeal and rectification requests were rejected on 26 November 1996 and 19 March 1997 respectively.
20.  Subsequently, on 24 June 1997, the Ministry of Defence brought an action before the same court and requested the transfer of the title deed to the land on behalf of the Treasury.
21.  On 23 December 1998, in view of its earlier decision on the subject dated 25 April 1996, the Ankara Civil Court of General Jurisdiction accepted the request of the Ministry of Defence and ordered the land be registered in the land registry in favour of the Treasury. It reiterated that the applicants' property rights over the land in question ceased, following the expiration of the statutory time-limit provided under Article 38 of the Law no. 2942.
On 8 March 1999 the Court of Cassation upheld this decision. The applicants' request for rectification was further rejected on 18 June 1999. This decision was served on them on 2 August 1999.
22.  On 10 April 2003 the Constitutional Court annulled Article 38 of Law no. 2942.